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My Summer in the Field

This fall semester marks both the beginning of my final semester at Penn State as well as the conclusion of an amazing summer internship with the Conewago Creek Initiative.

I participated in a fish electroshock survey of the Conewago Creek

With classes underway, football kickoff, and beautiful weather
accompanying the first week of the school year, Happy Valley is echoing with
Penn State pride! I am so enthusiastic to be returning for my final semester at
Penn State! I will be writing the Think Again blog again for you this fall,
with help from my new fellow intern and ERM student, Frank!

While I am excited to be back for another semester, I had an
amazing summer spent interning with the Conewago Creek Initiative in
Middletown, Pa. I cannot believe how fast the summer flew by! The Conewago
Initiative is a locally led partnership effort, part of Penn State Extension,
which seeks to improve water quality in the Conewago Creek watershed by working
with local residents and landowners in the community to increase awareness and
interest in adopting land-management practices that will improve the water
quality of local streams, ensure healthy farms, forests, and communities, and
protect and maintain the region’s quality of life.

My involvement with the Conewago Initiative included community outreach, direct contact with farmers and
landowners, water quality monitoring, the implementation and maintenance of riparian
buffers along streams, participation in meetings with partners to coordinate
efforts, and the creation of educational materials and a video to educate
members of the watershed on best management practices to improve water quality.
I discovered this summer that there is no better way to learn than to be
hands-on in the field!

One of my favorite memories from the summer was a fish survey
we conducted on the Conewago Creek as part of routine water quality monitoring.
We teamed up with the area’s conservation district to electroshock a section of
the creek that has recently undergone restoration. The survey method of
electroshocking uses a non-harmful level of current to shock the fish, causing
them to be stunned and float to the surface. The fish shocking produced amazing
results, showing an increase in both the number of species and overall number
of fish sampled. In four hours, we recorded more than 800 fish! These results
reinforced that the work that was done on the site to create a buffer and
engineered wetland did in fact make a difference in the creek, therefore
improving water quality not only in the Conewago but downstream, as far as the
Chesapeake Bay.

I cannot speak highly enough of my summer experiences and the
hands-on knowledge and skills I learned as an intern. Through this opportunity
I gained an infinite amount of knowledge in my field of study as well as
improved my leadership, communication and professional skills that I can take
forward with me as I enter the job market. The take-away message that I hope to
share with students looking to obtain more experience in your field of study: become
an intern!

To learn more about the internship I participated in, you can also watch this video about my fellow Conewago intern and ERM student Kristen Kyler.